I. Field
The following description relates generally to communications systems, and more particularly performing antenna switching to improve frequency diversity in a wireless communication environment.
II. Background
Wireless networking systems have become a prevalent means to communicate with others worldwide. Wireless communication devices, such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, and the like have become smaller and more powerful in order to meet consumer needs and to improve portability and convenience. Consumers have become dependent upon these devices, demanding reliable service, expanded areas of coverage, additional services (e.g., web browsing capabilities), and continued reduction in size and cost of such devices.
A typical wireless communication network (e.g., employing frequency, time, and code division techniques) includes one or more base stations that provides coverage areas to subscribers as well as mobile (e.g., wireless) devices that can transmit and receive data within the coverage areas. A typical base station can simultaneously transmit multiple data streams to multiple devices for broadcast, multicast, and/or unicast services, wherein a data stream is a stream of data that can be of independent reception interest to a user device. A user device within the coverage area of that base station can be interested in receiving one, more than one or all the data streams carried by the composite stream. Likewise, a user device can transmit data to the base station or another user device.
In conventional multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) receivers, a separate receive chain is required for each receive antenna. A strip channel is a dedicated resource that may be utilized by a base station for broadcasting. For example a non-beacon strip channel may permit a base station to broadcast information in a prescribed format, when information bits may be coded across one or more strip channels. However, conventional strip channels lack robustness when confronted with channel frequency selectivity, unreliable channel estimation, or the like. An unmet need exists in the art for systems and/or methodologies that mitigate interference and improve frequency diversity to overcome the afore-mentioned deficiencies.